Medina woman, who became face of Affordable Care Act after writing to Obama in 2010, dies
A Medina Township woman whose story of soaring health insurance premiums became a driving force to pass the Affordable Care Act in 2010, died Friday.
Canfield had been cancer-free for 11 years, but her premiums continued to rise beyond what she could pay with her income as a self-employed cleaning woman.
“Thanks to this incredible premium increase demanded by my insurance company, January will be my last month of insurance,” she wrote in the letter.
Although she had remained with the same health insurance provider for several years, her premiums increased 25% in 2009 and 40% in 2010.
“I need your Health reform bill to help me!!!” she wrote. “I simply can no longer afford to pay for my health care costs!!”
As contentious debate on the legislation took place on
Obama invited Canfield to a health care reform rally in
Her letter was later framed to hang in the
"I carried Natoma’s story with me every day of the fight to pass this law,” the president said
Canfield and her sister visited the
A bone marrow transplant failed to stop Canfield’s health problems as other cancers and health conditions followed her leukemia treatment. In following years, Canfield spent much of her time at the clinic.
In a
“Everything happened so fast, if you were going to write this in a novel, no one would ever believe it,” she said.
A memorial service for Canfield will be held Wednesday in Medina.
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